Mental Farmer

My hen Snapdragon is at least part Sumatra.  This makes her a bit wary, not as social as our other hens.  She hangs back from the flock, keeps her distance, doesn’t like being petted or fussed over like the others.  Sumatra hens tend to lay fewer eggs, one every 3 days or so.  In Snapdragon’s case, […]

Today we came home from a delightful week at the beach, where we spent time with friends from Chicago and Germany. When we arrived home, the girly-birds were nowhere to be found. I opened the chicken coop to find a four foot long black snake with an egg in its gullet! John managed to snap […]

The other day, I was talking about using a faux egg to entice my hens to lay inside their coop and not out in the brush.   A woman I work with, Hillary, crocheted this egg in about 3 minutes.  Isn’t it adorable?  Can’t  wait to show it to my birds! And wouldn’t a rustic bowl […]

Clockwise from top:  Sweet Pea, Snapdragon, Poe, and Clara Barton. Like I say, they’re getting along pretty well.  The girls were happy to roll in last  year’s mulch and freshly scratched dirt in the warm sun today.  They had chopped pear and strawberry and banana for a treat, and I cleaned the coop and changed […]

Meet Clara Barton.  John named our nurturing bird after the Red Cross founder.  The girls (still females as far as I can tell) have settled in nicely.  They seem to be getting along better.  Less bickering, fewer squabbles. Poe and Snapdragon tend to hang out together and seem to have forgotten about Mama and their other […]

Each day this past week, I’ve spent a little time feeding and tending our new pets. I named three of the four birds this week, as their personalities became obvious. (Yes, chickens do have personalities!) The 4th remains nameless, but my Facebook friends and my husband are providing suggestions. Feel free to offer up ideas. […]

This past week John and I prepared for our birds to come home to roost.  Dana and Paul (my sister and bro-in-law) gave us their small coop, since their new chicken tractor arrived this week.  John went over to pick up the coop on Thursday, and we got it all set up with an attached […]

LOOK WHAT WE ARE GETTING!  We are beginning to build the dream, a little biddy bit at a time.  See that chick with the black and white wings?  That’s our new Plymouth Barred Rock. (The others belong to my sister.) See that little bald eagle?  She’s coming to live with us too, along with two iridescent […]

I decided to stay a little closer to home this week, so I headed for Wiltse’s Greenhouse and Farm in Maple Park Illinois.  This is close enough for regular shopping if you live in Kane County like I do.  It’s 14 miles west of Geneva on Route 38.  Wiltse’s sells fresh produce, eggs, garden art, perennials, annuals, herbs, and runs […]